


A New World

by AutumnBloom



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Pocket Dimension, Slow Burn, Soul Stone (Marvel), Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-09 09:17:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14713337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnBloom/pseuds/AutumnBloom
Summary: Three things are certain.One... Thanos is a dick.Two... The soul world is a freaking awesome dimension to be displaced in.And three... Barnes is a damn dreamboat....Darcy has been sucked into the soul world, along with half the universe. She meets Bucky Barnes on the astral plains of the pocket dimension along with some other interesting characters.Shenanigans ensue.And she didn't mean to fall for him.She really didn't. And now she doesn't want to leave.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I think this goes without saying, this obviously has spoilers for Infinity War. So if you haven't seen it (Why?) and still want to read on do so at your own risk.
> 
> i used to be very active on this site and within the Bucky/Darcy fandom when I had a mental breakdown. I took down all my previous works (Etched and A Melody in my Heart. My old pen name was MidSummerDream. Waves madly at my old readers!) I am doing much better now and am writing again. I will be re-posting those previous stories at some point again.
> 
> This little story will be about 5 chapters long. I've finished most of it it just needs to be tidied up and edited. I will be posting every Saturday/Sunday. This fic is also unbeta'd so please forgive any mistakes, if you see anything please let me know and I can fix it up.
> 
> Now let's get this show on the road...
> 
> ***

_Holy shit balls._

 

The line in her favorite coffee shop was _hella_ long. Sighing in frustration at the delay, she began tapping out a text message to Jane about the ridiculous long line at the café, annoyed she threw her phone into her over sized bag and looked up to the order board to see what the weekly special was. The man in front of her reached behind himself to scratch an itch on the back of his neck when something strange happened, a feeling of dread swept through her silently, like ice dousing her veins.

 

She noticed said man looked kind of hazy around the edges. Like smoke or ash. The fingers he used to scratch the itch on his neck begun to float away. _Poof_. Very quickly the man was turning to ash before her eyes. It happened so fast that she thought it was a trick her eyes were playing on her. He disintegrated in a cloud of ash at her feet.

 

_What the actual fuck?_

 

Then the screaming started. All around her people where grasping and crying out.

 

As she stared around the coffee shop people were crumbling away, vanishing to ash as she watched on in horror, their remains settling to the floor in a heap.

 

People were just disappearing.

 

Just gone.

 

_Was this a dream?_

 

She rummaged around in her bag locating her phone to call Jane. Placing the phone to her ear, she briskly walked out of the coffee shop to the skyscraper lined street panic swelling in her at the chaos that was suddenly erupting everywhere.

 

One ring... two...three.

 

She started running back to the lab.

 

“ _Come on, answer your damn phone Jane.”_

Four...five....

 

As she ran she bumped into people who were dissolving, her eyes wide with fear as she watched people float away. Her feet kicked the ash of peoples remains littering the street. She felt sick.

 

Six...

“Did you forget my order _again?”_ Chided Jane answering the call.

 

“Oh thank Frigga,” Darcy puffed out, “Jane, something is wrong, really wrong, people are just....” Darcy ran past a mother and daughter clinging to each other as they just _went_...

 

“Darcy, I can’t hear you properly. What’s wrong? Where are you?”

 

“I’m coming back to the lab, people are turning into ash. People are dying. Everywhere Jane!”

 

“Darcy, I’m coming, keep calm and stay on the line.”

 

Darcy was so close to the lab when it started happening to her. She knew it, dread rose in her throat. She felt like she was going.

 

“Janie!” She screamed into the phone.

 

As her foot hit the pavement one last time she saw the ash rising up her leg and her foot and leg where no more. She dropped her phone and stood frozen.

 

She raised her hands but they weren’t there anymore.

 

She was falling apart like the rest of them. Being swept away to death.

 

“No,” she whispered as the end came for her. She looked up and saw Jane, running towards her eyes wide, her mouth open in a scream that Darcy couldn’t hear.

 

The last thing Darcy remembered was Jane’s look of terror.

 

Then the blackness swallowed her.

 

...

 

Waking up from disintegration was a lot like waking from a wicked hang over. Head throbbing and muscles aching Darcy was surprised by the feeling of actually having a body after what she experienced. Heck, she was surprised she had a mind to think thoughts. She stretched her muscles, flexing and relaxing them as she came too.

 

Her eyes fluttered open to an amazing, vibrant yellow sky above her. The horizon stretched for days unhindered from, well, anything.

It was like waking up on the dessert floor of Puente Antiguo all over again except this time she wasn’t drunk, she’d only died.

 

_Nice to see your sense of humor is still thoroughly intact._

There was not a cloud in the sky over her head just a beautiful bright sunflower yellow that stretch for days.

 

So this was death apparently?

 

At least there was no pain. When she died, crumbling to ash on the streets of London she expected pain along with the dread of dying.

 

While her mind feared the unknown it was a shock to feel her body readily accept death. To be at peace with it.

 

She sat up, looking around and her breath hitched. Thousands, no more than thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people where here with her, all in varied states of consciousness, some where still out cold, others like her were beginning to wake up. There were bodies scattered on the ground for more than her eye could see.

 

“ _I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,_ ” she mumbled to herself as she looked around and swallowed thickly.

 

As she scanned the mass of people laying and sitting around her, her eyes narrowed in on life forms that were clearly _not_ human.

 

Panic swelled inside her. Were the Dark Elves here? Was Thor here?

 

_What the fuck had happened to us all?_

Rubbing her heels of her palms into her eyes she took a deep, long breath to calm the very real dread that ran through her. She was somewhere, dead but alive, with thousands of other people on a fucking astral plain (it was he colour of the sky that was a dead giveaway) with fucking aliens, and worse of all she was alone.

 

Well, maybe.

 

What if Jane disintegrated just like her?

 

Darcy swallowed her fear and stood dusting the dirt from her ass and brushing the hair from her face. If she were here maybe Jane was too? She just had to find her. Or maybe she would bump into Erik, or her friends from college... Maybe her parents? _Shit_. She swallowed back tears and begun her search.

 

Her mission. Locate someone she knew. The thought of being alone, here without anyone she knew, terrified her.

 

People, aliens, other races and tribes she never knew existed were all beginning to wake up, rousing from slumber. Sure, after Thor she was no longer ignorant of alien races but this was something else. It was like half of the universe was here with her. She walked over legs and arms and even a tentacle or two, careful not to touch or wake anyone in her quest to find Jane.

 

As people around her begun woke up, she heard the gasps and the confusion all around her. Some people begun crying. Others were doing what she was - searching.

 

She realized that soon, very soon, this place - wherever she was - would become utter chaos as thousands upon hundreds thousands, possibly millions, of people began to wake from their sleep. Or death. Whatever.

 

She wandered aimlessly looking into the faces of people as she passed by.

 

 _Where was Saint Peter_? She vaguely wondered. A pathetic laugh escaped her lips.

 

This was definitely not heaven.

 

....

 

Hours went by, she wasn’t sure how long she had been looking into every face she passed hoping to catch a glimpse of Jane or someone she knew but it felt like a very long time judging by the amount of faces she peered into.

 

As she walked through the huge crowds people and aliens were beginning to form pockets of groups. She noted some families where back together, they way the adults were embracing their children showed Darcy they knew one another.

 

This gave her a hope to cling to in finding someone she knew. Yet she couldn’t shake the gnawing at her chest that she would have found her tiny scientist sister by now.

 

She kept walking. She couldn’t give up. Her feet were beginning to ache like a mother, her brow was covered in a sheen of sweat and her calves begun to burn. Darcy was built for Netflix binges and science benders not walking the astral plain yet determined as she was she would walk this god damned plain for weeks if she had too. It was her only solid plan - to seek out Jane - and by god that’s all she could do here.

 

Then she noticed shiny metal. And tactical gear. Long hair framing a face set in worry. She picked up her pace and pushed her way pass a group of purple people to get to him. But by the time she made it to where he was standing he had vanished.

 

Darcy huffed our in exasperation.

 

She knew that arm. Well, she didn’t know him but knew _of_ the man the sexy-ass metal arm was attached too. And _he_ knew Captain America and Captain America knew Thor.

 

And if Thor was here with him then he could explain well, everything. She hoped. Fingers crossed.

 

Twisting around she scanned the crowd looking for any sign of the man she knew from her high school history books as James Buchanan Barnes and from SHIELDS leaked data dump on the dark web as The Winter Soldier.

 

Her heart simultaneously sank and leap for joy when she spotted him again.

 

He wasn’t alone. There were other Avengers with him. And Thor wasn’t one of them.

 

 _Well fuck_. Won’t hurt to go over to him, he was the first person she recognized in this god forsaken place.

 

Making a beeline for him she walked quickly, like if she didn’t reach him in time he would disappear right before her eyes again. And this time he wouldn’t reappear again.

 

She was so close to him, about two meters away when a huge blue alien reached out from next to her pulling her towards itself with a massive arm.

 

She had vaguely processed the giants standing near her but aliens were everywhere and with her quest to just reach James she forgot all about safety. The grip of the alien cinching in her waist with his thumb ( _if that was a thumb?!_ ) and forefinger made her yelp at the sudden contact of cold. The blue arm was attached to none other than a fucking frosty giant. He pinched her waist and pain shot through her, she also was pretty sure she was going to vomit. She cried out and trying with all her strength, _which was pretty minimal lets be honest_ , to push the ugly ass thumb from crushing her stomach.

 

He spoke in another language, this she knew but perhaps due to the magic of where she was she clearly understood him, “I caught another one! That’s thirteen!” He chortled to his “friends”, other frost giants who all laughed at his idea of a practical joke.

 

Fucking Aliens.

 

“Motherfucker!” She grasped out, her voice laced with poison. “Put me down right now or so help me god I will taser your ass back to wherever it is you came from!” She squirmed as the giant laughed and dropped her down to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

 

Wincing she rubbed the back of her head where the giant dropped her.

 

“Shit. Are you okay?” A gravelly voice from just above her said.

 

She winced, taking her ragged breath and opened her eyes, looking up to the voice asking about her.

 

It was him.

 

James. Bucky…. _Bucky Barnes_.

 

“It’s you.” She croaked out.

 

“Ah, what now?” He frowned at her.

 

Darcy smiled slightly. Catching her breath she spoke.

 

“James Buchanan Barnes a.k.a The Winter Soldier. Well, former Winter Soldier.” She stopped catching her breathe. “I read your files…” Darcy’s voice dropped an octave as guilt washed over her at her admission of looking him up in the past.

 

“I’m gonna’ ask you how the hell you know that in a second but right now I just wanna’ check your not hurt. Okay?” His voice was defensive.

 

“Yeah,” she nodded and reached to the back of her head, pushing the sore spot on her head checking for any blood. “Ouch.”

 

“Lemme’ have a look.”

 

He leant down next to her. His knees settling in the dusty ground. She moved up to lean on her elbows, turning her head so he could inspect her scalp. His warm fingers, pushing her hair aside, probing gently near the sore spot but not touching it directly. She sucked a breath in at the tenderness of his touch.

 

“You’re fine, there’s no blood,” he said as he gently touched her chin and turned her head so she faced him. He looked deep into her eyes, his eyes shifting as he checked each one of her pupils. His eyes were blue. _Really blue_. She could fall in those eyes.

 

“No Concussion either. That frosty giant has been an asshole since I woke up here. You know, you’re the first person to actually mouth off at him. Most of the women he nabbed either scream or faint.”

 

“Well, I don’t care what planet you’re from there are certain things that are not fucking acceptable.”

 

He chuckled and put his right hand out to help her up.

 

She placed her tiny hand in his. Relishing in the warmth of him.

 

It had been _a long_ while since she had any male contact and her lady bits stood up to attention at the smallest touch. He pulled her up to a standing position with no effort at all. She gulped as she stood face to face with him.

 

He was intimidating.

 

And big. Like really nice big. Maybe that was just the head injury talking.

 

_Okay Darce, stop ogling the dude._

 

He stared at her, face impassive. “How do you know who I am?” He ask with suspicion.

 

“I saw your files on the dark web. They have been there for years. Sorry about what HYDRA did to you man, that was some fucked up shit right there.”

 

He cleared his throat. Giving her a slight nod.

 

“I’m Darcy Lewis. Is, ah,” she looked around, “is Thor here?”

 

James looked at her questioningly.

 

“How do you know Thor?”

 

“I kind tased him once.”

 

“You, tased Thor? _You_?” He smiled crookedly breaking the impassivity held there.

 

“He was freaking me out!”

 

“Why does that not surprise me after what happened with ol’ frosty over there.” It wasn’t a question more of a statement.

 

“I was there when Thor made first contact. I tased him cause one, he was rambling on and on like a drugged up junkie. Two, it was dark in the middle of nowhere when we hit him. It’s all good though, we became friends and he started dating my boss so it was all sweet in the end.”

 

“Huh,”

 

Darcy smiled a toothy grin at him.

 

“I was hoping he would be with you all,” she motioned her head to the Avengers near James. “So, is he around?”

 

James shook his head.

 

_Crap. Now what?_

 

“Do you know where we are James?”

 

“Call me Bucky,” he requested as he shifted the weight on his feet. The light caught his metal arm making it glow gold.

 

“Bucky.”

 

He shook his head again at her question.

 

Darcy pursed her lips running her hands through her long hair.

 

“Shit. Do you know how this all happened?” She practically whispered.

 

He nodded. His face filled with worry, he chewed on the gum below his lip, his eyes holding a far away look as if he were somewhere else.

 

She placed her hand on his right hand again, bringing him back to the present with her touch. The pained look on his face filled her with compassion for his suffering. He looked at her like his was actually scared of her, either by her touch or something she said. She wasn’t sure.

 

“Do you think we can we get home?”

 

An accented voice came from behind her. “We cannot get home until we are released from the soul stone by its owner. Until then this place is now home.”

 

Darcy turned around and gasped. Her mouth hung open.

 

King T’Challa was standing straight and tall behind her. In a fucking catsuit. _Damn boy_. She begun to bow in a curtsy because _royalty_ when his hand brushed her shoulder and he gave her a soft smile and shook his head. She stood properly again.

 

“So, I’m just confirming we’re not dead then cause I got say I’m thoroughly confused.”

 

“No, not dead.” T’Challa explained. “When Thanos clicked his fingers and chose to destroy half of all life, what he did not know was that the stone he used to quench life does not extinguish life.”

 

“What now?” Darcy bewildered. “Who is Thanos? You said a stone did all this?”

 

T’Challa hummed.

 

“It seems you have much to catch up on. I’m sure James can get you up to speed, Darcy Lewis.”

 

And with that T’Challa walked away leaving her again in the company of Bucky Barnes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I'd be updating on the weekend but I finished editing this early so I thought I'd treat you to an early update! 
> 
> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own. Let me know if you see anything that needs fixing.

Bucky was nothing but thorough in explaining all about what went down with Thanos at the battle in Wakanda. He also told her all he knew from the others that were with him too, filling any gaps in her mind about what went down earth side.

 

He told her how Iron Man was on Titan, information he got from a man called Peter Quill who traveled through the stars his whole life. He spoke with facts only, leaving out any emotion.

 

She figured he was numbing the trauma of it all and she didn’t blame him one bit.

 

After the down low he introduced her to the others. 

 

Darcy had found out that the Avengers, well, what was left of them after their split during all the nasty accords stuff, had been divided between earth and the soul world. She also found out king freaking T’Challa had super powers and was called the Black Panther.

 

She also met a solemn teenage boy by the name of Peter Parker who had been fighting on Titan with Tony Stark. The teenager was Spider-Man.

 

_Why not spider boy.... probably doesn’t have the same ring to it_.

 

Her heart went out to Parker especially. He was just a kid, literally. Her caretaker instincts longed to wrap Parker in her arms in a motherly way. 

 

She also met some aliens who seemed pretty darn cool in her books even if they were reserved and shell shocked from their battles. 

 

“Well aren’t you the cutest damn thing I’ve seen in all my life,” Darcy said to a walking, living tree with a sweet face.

 

“I am Groot.”

 

“I’m Darcy,” She beamed at the living tree.

 

The group of misfit superheroes were battered. They’re bodies showed signs of extreme fatigue and the worse of all, each one carried the weight of defeat on their shoulders. Darcy realized they had all been directly involved in the battle to save the universe and they had failed. 

 

They sat around, heads between knees, some were napping, some wandering around aimlessly. T’Challa was speaking with Bucky and a man she had not yet met. They walked a perimeter around their little group, meet up, chat for a bit then walk again. Always protecting, she thought.

 

Her heart hurt for these people who fought so courageously.

 

The somber mood affecting her she sat down on the ground next to a beautiful woman who introduced herself as Wanda. 

 

“Hi, I’m Darcy.”

 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Darcy,” Wanda sniffled and rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her cardigan, Wanda’s gaze still on the ground in front of her.

 

“Likewise.” Darcy smiled a small smile at Wanda. “This is a stupid question but are you okay?”

 

“No,” a tear slid down Wanda’s cheek.

 

“I know I don’t know you,” Darcy said awkwardly. “But I’m an awesome cuddlier and I hear hugs are great for when you need to have a good cry.” 

 

Wanda’s face crumpled as she looked to Darcy, Wanda has a look of someone who was completely broken.

 

A sob erupted from somewhere deep within Wanda. She nodded her head and Darcy wrapped her arms around the woman. Wanda broke apart in Darcy’s arms. 

 

Darcy rocked and soothed Wanda.

 

“We have all lost much.” The man with the salt and pepper hair who she hadn’t met yet sat down in the dust next to her.

 

“I, I don’t know what to say... everything would sound far to trite. I’m just… I’m so sorry for what you all have been through.” She held Wanda more tightly. Brushing her fingers through Wanda’s hair, trying to soothe her new friend. 

 

“Thank you.” He inclined his head and looked at her questioningly. 

 

“Darcy. Lewis.” 

 

“Doctor Stephen Strange.” 

 

“So, what’s your take on all this Doc?” 

 

“It is necessary. Being here. It is the only way we can travel back eventually. If Thanos took ownership of five stones before I gave him the time stone, I was the previous guardian of that stone; people wouldn’t be able to return to their home planets. There is hope. A small hope but hope regardless. The order of the stones obtained is important, now the people on earth need to do their part.”

 

“So because you gave him the time stone, before he collected some of the other stones we have hope.”

 

“Correct.” Said Stephen as he moved his legs to a lotus position. “The time stone is sentient. It feels. It thinks. And it can appear where and _when_ it wants too.”

 

“This place is alive too,” said Wanda quietly, her voice thick with tears. “I can feel it.”

 

“So why aren’t we getting bat outta hell then? Why hasn’t the time stone come to save the day?”

 

“Because the stone knows. It knows when we will need it. It knows who will need it.” He closed his eyes and Darcy knew the conversation with the doctor was wrapping up as he took solitude in the form of mediation. “We can only hope.”

 

Darcy mumbled something under her breath about the stupidity of hope sometimes. Wanda chuckled at her little rant as tears still fell silently from her cheeks.

 

“It’s bullshit, that’s what it is.” Bucky sat down next to Wanda.

 

Stephen cracked an eye open to glare at Bucky but he didn’t say anything.

 

“How you holdin’ up?” Bucky spoke to Wanda softly. He placed his flesh hand on her shoulder. “You we’re magnificent today. Darce,” Bucky looked to Darcy. “You should of seen her. She fought so bravely for… for us, for Vision.”

 

Darcy nodded. She didn’t want to pry; she didn’t want to prod tender feelings further.

 

“I’m not good James,” Wanda’s voice was shaking. “The pain inside. It’s too much. Losing him, it’s more than I can bare.”

 

Darcy felt Wanda’s body shake in her arms, she could hear her pain. She could see it in they way she curled her body into Darcy. The despair. She held Wanda not knowing what else to do.

 

“I’m sorry Wanda. I know you loved each other very much.” Bucky said mournfully.

 

They sat there for a long time like that.

 

Not speaking.

 

Just being. Trying to comfort each other in silence. People began dozing eventually. Wanda moved from sitting to lying down. Tiredness crept into Darcy’s bones and she suspected everyone felt the same.

 

Wanda’s head was cradled in her lap; Darcy ran her fingers through Wanda’s strawberry colored hair as she napped, the stroking repetition was making Darcy sleepy. As Darcy was about to drift off she yawned taking one last look around her when she noticed no one else around except their little posse of misfits.

 

“Ah, Wanda,” Darcy’s voice sounded alarmed.

 

Bucky lifted his head from in-between his knees, his eyes half shut from sleep, surveying the now empty landscape.

 

He gave Darcy a look that said _what the actual fuck_.

 

Wanda sat up from Darcy’s lap and looked around anxiously as a freaking red light emitted from her outstretched hands in wispy swirls. Darcy’s eyes widened. She knew Wanda as the Scarlett Witch but seeing her powers up close and personal was _wow_.

 

Wanda’s face relaxed.

 

“They are still here. Their souls are still thrumming in this dimension. I can feel their energy here.”

 

“How is that happening?” The teen boy called out from his place near them.

 

“I don’t know why or how but they are here.” She replied.

 

“Maybe the soul world is grouping people? Making it easier for groups to coexist peacefully?” The lovely alien with antennae offered her idea to the group.

 

Not only did the soul world hide people, actual goddamn huts came into existence of our fucking _nowhere_. Trees sprung up from the ground in random formation, giving shade. Flowers lined path ways to their new homes and in the middle of all the huts was a communal area like Darcy was used to seeing when she would go camping with her parents. There was a campfire surrounded by logs. It looked like summer camp all over again. 

 

Behind the huts to the left ran a stream, which continued for miles. She couldn’t see it’s beginning or end but it was aqua clear and lazily flowing. It was wide and deep enough to stand in with a shoreline in some places. Yep. She was stuck at an inter-dimensional summer camp with none other than a handful of avengers, some aliens who called themselves guardians, a king, a doctor, and Bucky freaking Barnes. 

 

“ _Holy shit_.” Darcy said amazed.

 

“Now that’s a party trick.” She heard Peter Quill say.

 

“Damn straight,” she replied.

 

….

 

The campfire crackled around them, Darcy snuggled further into her red scarf, which she pulled up to under her chin to keep the chill out. The night was approaching, the yellow sky turning to shades of blue, purples and pinks and it was getting rather chilly. There was a gentle breeze - fuck knew where it came from - It really was something else here in the soul stone. 

 

The others had moved off to their respective huts and cabins for the evening leaving Bucky and Darcy at their communal area. Darcy was perched on a log and held her hands out to fire to warm her fingertips. 

 

Darcy closed her eyes, taking a deep breath through her nose, savoring the smell of smoked wood and listening to the cackle of the fire among the silence of twilight.

 

After a few quiet moments she opened her eyes to look at Bucky who sat a few meters away from her. He spent most of the evening talking with T’Challa quietly.

 

“How did it happen to you?” She looked to Bucky, her head tilted enquiringly.

 

“It happened at the battle in Wakanda. One minute I was fightin', I went for him,” Bucky threw another piece of wood on the fire. Sparks flew up into the darkening sky. “The dickhead blasted me and I blacked out. Next thing I knew I was waking up and then fadin’ away. Steve was there when it happened,” He paused, looking incredibly sad. “I can't get the look of his face outta’ my head.”

 

She got up and walked over to him slowly. His eyes connected with hers, she held his gaze until she sat next to him. His look was intense and it made Darcy’s stomach drop. She sat down on his left side, almost close enough that her thigh touched his. Darcy placed a hand on his wrist. His metal one. Her index finger brushing up and down over the plates. He let out a shaky breath, whether from her touch or from what happened with Steve. He gave her a small, one-sided smile.

 

“I’m sorry James.” She said sincerely. “That royally sucks. You just got him back and....”

 

“Ain’t your fault,” He said as he watched her fingers dance on his metal wrist and palm.

 

“It doesn’t scare you?” he asked quietly.

 

“No, it’s fucking awesome.”

 

“I like this one. It hasn’t killed innocents.” He replied.

 

“Bucky, you never killed innocents. I read your file. You were brainwashed and that is putting it lightly.”

 

“Darcy.”

 

“It’s true. It wasn’t you it was HYDRA. They used you as their weapon Bucky.” He voice firm.

 

He hummed and she dropped the topic.

 

“What about you?” he asked.

 

“Well ah, it’s definitely not as dramatic as your story. I wasn't fighting with the asshole who fucked up our universe,” she laughed, “I was getting coffee for Jane and I. We have been working some killer hours at the lab and I needed a pick me up. Seems like another lifetime now.” She trailed off.

 

“Jane was there at the end too. She saw me disintegrate on the street, I thought she would be here, so I started looking for her and then I found… you.”

 

He looked at her face again. His eyes roamed over her forehead, eyes and lips. She felt exposed.

 

“It's gonna’ be okay Darce.”

 

She heard his words but his face told a different story. It was laced with anxiety behind the mask he tried to wear.

 

“What if it isn't?” She whispered. “What if we get stuck here? What if...”

 

“We’ll all get through this together. We have each other. We’re gonna’ get home.”

 

“What if we can't get home? What if we get stuck here in this fucking dimension?”

 

“At least I'll be stuck here with a pretty lookin’ dame like you.” He smirked at her and turned, looking into the fire. If he was trying to ease her own anxiety by flirting with her it was damn well working.

 

It was getting very dark now, his profile was just... Ugh. Christ on a cracker Bucky Barnes was gorgeous and he looked almost divine in the warm glow of the fire. And he called her pretty. He thought she was pretty.

 

Darcy flushed at his compliment.

 

“Tell me more about your friend.” Bucky said picking up the conversation again.

 

Darcy begun to regale Bucky with the tale of Jane and their friendship over the last few years, starting all the way back at the beginning to where they were today, in London still working on Jane's data and her do’dads for space. It made her long for the tiny scientist. Jane was more like a sister then a friend. They were so incredibly different yet they gelled together so well. And they hadn’t really been apart for years. Darcy felt like she had lost a limb. A tiny fierce limb.

 

“It's weird you know, Jane picked up some really bizarre readings over in New York and Africa, kind of like when Thor came the first time on the rainbow bridge.”

 

“That would have been when Banner landed at the doctors sanctum, he said something about Heimdall sending him back there and then at the battle in Wakanda Thor arrived outta’ nowhere on a lightening bolt of rainbow colors.”

 

“Huh, interesting.” Darcy said raising her eyebrows.

 

“Won't your boss wanna’ know about how Thor came back if they’re you know…?” he waggled his eyebrows.

 

“I'm going to go with yes but she has some big hang ups about Thor. They broke up a while ago and it was really sucky.... andddd I should definitely not be telling you any of this because girl code.”

 

“Girl code?” Bucky looked perplexed.

 

“Yeah like the whole chicks before dicks type thing.” Darcy waved her hand near her head.

 

Bucky choked out a laugh.

 

“You are really something else Darcy Lewis.”

 

Yeah she was going to take that as a compliment.

 

“I get that a lot. Speaking of epic friendships.” Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. She shifted her position her butt was getting numb. She raised her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself.

 

He laughed.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Like I haven't heard that one before.”

 

“What have you been doing since all the stuff went down the accords? It’s been what, two years? There's been no mention of the Winter Solider in my hacking communities since all that shit went down.”

 

“You know, it's not very nice to spy on people Lewis.” He teased.

 

“Oh please.” Darcy drawled. “Says the spysassin in front of me. Plus I never thought I'd meet you, like ever. Wasn’t on my radar. I’m just a nosy bitch who puts her nose into things she probably shouldn’t.”

 

He laughed shaking his head.

 

“Don't get me wrong I'm really glad I have met you. You’re really… Nice,” Darcy flustered. She never flustered.

 

Bucky laughed.

 

“Well, if you must know, this spysassin has been in Wakanda the past couple of years.”

 

Darcy waited for him to elaborate.

 

“Shuri, that’s T’Challa’s younger sister is a genius, probably more of a genius than Stark,” He chuckled.

 

“I don’t know the man but he seems like the type of person who would contest that, very vocally and probably with a fancy new invention.”

 

Bucky laughed. It was a sweet sound and she wanted to make him laugh more.

 

“She was able to figure out how to get all the triggers and shit HYDRA placed in my brain. Thanks to her I’m now my own again.

 

“Wow. That’s awesome Bucky.” 

 

“And I can’t really leave there and go back home you know. I am a wanted man and all. “

 

You could say that again, Darcy mumbled under her breath. 

 

If Bucky heard her he didn't let on.

 

“Wakanda, it’s amazing. Like nowhere I’ve ever been before and that’s saying something. Wakanda and her people, they taught me to slow down and enjoy life again. I haven’t done that for a very long time.”

 

Darcy beamed at him.

 

Her heart was so happy for him, happy that his mind was free from HYDRA’s control. That he found peace in the African country. And himself. 

 

“Do you think you’ll ever return to America one day, when they clear your name?” Darcy asked. 

 

“If we get outta’ here?” Bucky pondered her question. “No, maybe. I don’t know. I’m happy there... Happy among the people that call Wakanda home. I can’t say if I’ll ever go home.” 

 

“Fair enough. After all you have been through anyone would want you to have happiness.” 

 

Bucky hummed, his eyes gazed at her own.

 

“When I woke up here I didn’t think I’d be happy. I was angry that I was taken away _again_. But, I am happy. I’m happy that the stone brought me here.”

 

He was still staring at her and cheeks flamed from the way he was looking at her. Was that lust she saw? Heat? She could fucking feel it, the attraction. The desire. She wanted to pull him by the collar of his shirt; she wanted his mouth on hers. She wanted to feel his lips, his breath ghost over her mouth as he opened to her and she licked at his tongue. She wanted to feel the warmth of his kiss, the wetness of it; she wanted to feel the way his tongue would meet hers. She wondered if he would kiss her tenderly or with passion.

 

He was too close all of a sudden and she felt like she would do something they would both regret if she stayed any longer. She had earned his trust; she didn’t want to blow it by kissing him.

 

She cleared her throat and stood up, brushing imaginary dust from her jeans. 

 

“Well, that’s great. I’m glad you’re happy. I think I’ll be hitting the sack now. Good night James.” 

 

“Night Darce.”

 

Darcy walked briskly to her little hut she shared with Wanda.

 

She opened the door quickly and turned around pushing her back against the timber frame, breathing rapidly. Her heart was almost beating from her chest. She pushed her thighs together, rubbing.            

 

Shit. Darcy! Don’t fall for the man. _He has more issues than vogue magazine_. He needs to heal, not be chased by a skirt.

 

Her stomach did a little flip flop when she taught of the look Bucky gave her, she wasn’t sure if he realized but _damn_. 

 

She could feel the tell tale signs of lust and desire licking at the core of her. 

 

She hadn’t felt deep-seated attraction to someone in a very long time. Her work with Jane always came first. She followed Jane to London and stayed there. They chased science together and after Thor their bond grew even closer. 

 

Sure there were one night stands but there was no time for a relationship when they were on the brink of something spectacular. 

 

And if Darcy was being honest. No man drew her in. After a taste of life with Jane, life on the road, life after fucking aliens invaded, well, no man held her interest. She was happy with having a man in her bed for the night and nothing more. They were all self absorbed or boring or just had no real substance to them. They all came up lacking in someway, there was no connection; no flame so eventually Darcy stopped dating, she stopped seeking a man to share her life with. She even stopped the one-night stands after a while. And she was okay with that. 

 

But that was all before she met him. 

 

Darcy banged her head against the timber.

 

“I am soooo fucked.” 


End file.
